Insulator



(No Model.)

H. L. JAMES.

INSULATOR.

No. 310,059. Patented Dec. 30, 1884.

INVBN TOR ATTORNEY T UNrTso STATES PATENT OFFICE.

llAMlL'IOh" l1. JAMES, OF JUNWFION CITY, KANSAS.

INSULATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 310,059, dated December 30, 1884-.

Application tiled A pril 1, 1891. (Yo model.)

To all 1071,0111, it may concern:

Be it known that I, HAMILTON L. JAMES, of l the upper end of the retainingplate.

Junction City, Davis county, State of Kansas, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Insulators for Electrical Conductors, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to insulators made of glass or other suitable non-conducting material, such as are used in the open air for supporting telegraphic line wires or other electrical conductors. It also relates to insulators used in the interior of buildings for suspending and supporting large insulated conductors or cables, such as are employed for tclephonicor electric lighting purposes.

My invention has for its object to construct an insulator in such a manner that the conductors can be readily attached and secured thereto or removed therefrom without the necessity of using any means for securing the conductor other than that provided by the iir sulator itself.

It is now commonly the practice to attach line-wires or conductors to the insulator by means of short pieces of wire fastened. around the insulator and attached at either end to the main conductor. To apply wires of this description it requires considerable time, and when it is desired to move or change a conductor such wires have to be cut. They have also been found to be obiectionable in practice, owing to the fact that the rubbing and friction occurring between them and the conductor, caused by the motion imparted by wind, tends to rapidly destroy the conductor, and in the case of large insulated conductors conveying currents of high clectro-motive l'orce they become a source of danger, in that the destruction of the insulation will, under certain circumstances, allow a deviation of the current from its proper conductor.

In the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, similar letters of reference indicate like parts, in which Figures l. and 3 are vertical elevations ol my device, showing the electrical conductor contained in a groove or slot cut transversely, or transversely inclined across one side of the l 1 l l i i l l l l l l l l l 1 l insulator and secured therein by means of the sliding retaining-plate. Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken on the line a: .U of Fig. 1, showing the attachment of the insulator to its supporting-pin, and also the storm hood or cap on Fig. t is a transverse section taken on the line 911 of ig. 1, and shows the relation of the retain ing-plate to the groove in the side of the insulator. Fig. 5 is a view or elevation of a modification of my device as adapted for use in the interior of a building, and shows the transverse slot for the conductor, screw for attaching the insulator to the wall, and wedgeshaped opening for the receiving and retaining plate. Fig. 6 is a vertical section taken on the line Jr a: of Fig. 5. Fig. '7 is a transverse section taken on the line y 9 of Fig. 5.

In Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4-, A is the body of the insulator, cylindrical in shape and slightly tapering from the base to the top.

I do not, however, limit myself to any particular form or configuration of the body ol' the insulator, provided, however, that the shape shall be such that the raised portion on one side of the insulator, as hereinafter described, i'or holding and retaining the electrical conductor, can be adapted thereto and made a part thereof. I

The insulator may be made of glass, porce lain, or any suitable non-conducting material, or it may be made of a poor conducting material and the raised portion attached. thereto, for holding the conductor, made 01' a nonconducting,material.

As shown in the drawings, the insulator is arranged to be attached to a snpporting pin, l by means of the screw-thread cut or cast into the body of the insulator, which tits :1. corresponding screw cut upon the pin. it may, however, be attached by any equivalent device. which will secure the insulator firmly to the pin.

Arranged longitudinally on one side of the body of the insulator, and forming a part thereof, is a raised portion, 0, consisting of the ribs 3 0, located opposite to each other, and having their inner edges beveledinwardly.

l) represents aline-wire or an electrical conductor, and is shownlocated in a slot orgroove cut transversely across one side of the insulater and through the ribs 0 O.

F], Fig. 8. is also a groove for receiving the conductor, transversely inclined across the side ol the insulator, and through the ribs 0 The object of cutting the conductor-grooves as shown is as follows: In Fig. 1 astraight groove is shown. This form is preferable for use where the line-conductors are subject to considerable expansion and contraction, owing to variations of temperature, or in localities where trees in falling are apt to strike upon the wires and drag them down. The wire, being loosely held, is freeto movcin itsslide on 1 the insulator, and thus escapes being broken.

In Fig. 1 a short portion of wire is shown at F, attaching the main conductor to the in sulator in the usual way. This arrangement, however, is only necessary where it is desired to prevent too great a strain acting upon the retaining-plate, as when the wire is conveyed at an angle.

In Fig. 3 the groove for the conductor is iuclined. The object of making it in this form is twofold: First, tojam or hold the conductor in its required position, by reason of being under strain or tension, the conductor bears against the angles or points T T on the ribs 0 O of the raised portion 0; second, by its inclined direction, to allow any water which may leak into the joint to flow away.

(i is the retaining slide or plate having its edges beveled and adapted to fit into the longitudinal oritice between the ribs C .0. Upon the upper end of the plate is a storm cap or hood inclined or curved upon its upper surface to conform to the contour of the der side to tit upon a seat formed by the up per edges of the ribs 0 U.

The retaining plate (,2- may be of glass, baked wood, hard rubbeuor any non-conducting material. having sufficient tensile strength to stand the strains to which it is subjected.

In the modification of my device as shown in Figs. 5, 6, and 7, the insulator consists of versely a cross the face thereof, .l, for the reception of the electrical conductor, and a countersunk orifice in the center of the disk for receiving a screw, K, used to attach the insulator to the wall. The screw may be of metal, and is preferably capped with rubber, or has a small portion of insulating material of any kind interposed between it; and the electrical conductor 1), when in the slot made to receiveit. Cutinto the face of the disk is the wed ge-shapcd or tapering opposite edges beveled or inclined inwardly, adapted to receive the tapering beveled plate M, which retains the conductor in position.

The operation of my device is as follows: The conducting wire is inserted into the! groove made to receive it, and the plates (lor M, in either form of theinsulator, are inserted into the slots made to receive them, and act to hold the coiulucting-wire in its proper i position. I claim as my inveutiou l l l l l l top of the lnsulator, and inclined upon its uir l a disk of glass, porcelain, or other insulating material, .I, having a groove cut transslot L, having its 1. A supportinginsulator for telegraphic line wires or other electrical conductors, having arranged upon one side thereof a raised or elevated portion, through which is cut a transverse groove or slot for receiving the electrical conductor, said conductor being held in position by means of a retaining-plate adapted to iit in a longitudinal groove cut in said raised portion, substantially as described.

2. A. supporting-insulator for telegraphic line wires or other electrical conductors, hav ing arranged upon one side thereof a raised or elevated portion, through which is cut a transversely-ineliued groove or slot :for re ceiving the electrical conductor,said conductor being held in position by means of a retaining-plate adapted to lit in a llongitrulinal groove cut in said raised portion, substantially as described.

3. A supporting-insulator for telegraphic line wires or other electrical conductors, having upon its exterior surface a transverse groove or slot adapted to receive an electrical condnctor,and a wedge-shaped groove or slot for receiving a wedge-shaped retaining-plate, substantially as described.

1-. The combination,substantially as hereinbefore set forth, of an insulator composed of non-conducting material,having a raised portion on one side tl1ereoi",with aplate of non-con ducting material adapted to tit into a longitudinal slot cut into said raised portion, substantially as described.

5. The combination, substantially as herein set forth, of an insulator having a raised portion on one side thereof, with a plate of non-conducting material upon which is arranged a storm-hood adapted to fit over the end of a longitudinal slot cut into said raised portion, substantially as described.

6. As a new article of manufacture, an in sulator for electrical conductors, having av raised portion on one side thereof, and having a transverse or transversely-inclined slot cut through said raised portions for receiving the conductor, and the means for securing the conductor in position, consisting of a retaining-plate,straight or wedge-shaped,and adapt ed to litinto a longitudinal groove cut in said raised portions, substantially as described.

7. As a means of supporting an electrical conductor in a non-conl'lucting insulator, a straight or inclined slot cut across the side of said insulator, and a plate of non-eomlucting material adapted to lit into a longitudinal groove formed upon said insulator, in such a manner that said retainingplate shall act to retain the conduct-or within the groove, sulv stantially as described.

lIAMll/FOX' ll. .I.\1\l us.

\Yitnesses:

\Vn. 11'. Luis", (ii-1o. ill'. 'inxrvulx. 

